In this chapter Sam Harris basically tells me that most people believe in religion because others told them to, and also that religion uses fear to govern humanity, the fear of hell or whatever they believe the ultimate punishment is ( see the following).
"Religion is based... mainly on fear... fear of the mysterious, fear of defeat, fear of death. Fear is the parent of cruelty, and therefore it is no wonder if cruelty and religion have gone hand in hand,” Sam Harris
Based on the previous quote and other statements Harris believes religion leads directly to cruelty, I simply ask what exactly his definition of cruelty is. Obviously one of his major criticisms of religion is this chapter is this cruelty it creates yet in a later chapter he has an entire section on reasons he advocates torture in certain judiciary cases. That is jumping ahead a bit, but I believe that in this case a broad look at his case shows a bit of hypocrisy in this section.
Harris also adds to his case on faith in Holy documents with no backing but faith. Once again noting that fear comes into play, I don’t totally discount the fact that I am afraid to go to Hell, but its only one of a vast amount of reasons I consider myself a Christian. Also, whether they believe it is possible I would love to find one person that would not be afraid of the notion of burning for all eternity.
Matthew Grabiak
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